With the weather warming up, you and your family can relax and spend more time together outside. The days are longer, the weather is heating-up, and the sun can seem hotter than ever! To help you and your family relax worry-free, here are some sun safety tips that will help keep everyone safe from being over-exposed to the sun, dealing with pesky sunburns, and other potential health risks.

Sun Safety for Kids

Kids – especially younger ones – need special attention when it comes to sun protection. Many children are just happy it’s warm and sunny and don’t even know about over-exposure. Kids love to spend lots of time outdoors, in and out of the water, so they often get lots of sun exposure, so it’s important to make sure kids have adequate protection from the sun’s harmful rays.

According to the CDC and Cancer Prevention Society, younger children and babies under 6 months should often be kept out of direct sunlight exposure. A few of our products make this easier – and more fun – like the baby canopy spring float, or one of our other pool floats with canopies. These help keep kids out of sunlight while letting parent and child enjoy the water.

Using Sunscreen for Protection

Along with summer comes lots of sun, and sunscreen is one of the easiest ways to help keep away those annoying sunburns. What about when it’s cloudy or cool outside? The sun’s rays are still shining, and the part of sunlight that can burn your skin still gets through. So even if your beach day is a little cloudy, or it’s a little cool outside, make sure you and your kids wear sunscreen.

The EPA suggests using a sunscreen of an SPF of 30 or higher to help prevent over-exposure. They also suggest regularly reapplying it, especially if you are spending the day in the sun. Higher SPF ratings help too, so make sure to check the label and purchase accordingly. Remember too that when you towel off after getting out of the water, you may need to reapply sunscreen.

Shade & Clothing

Another good way to help prevent over exposure to the sun is always have a nice, shaded place to cool off. The sun is at its peak in the summer between 10am and 4pm, so make sure there’s some shade for the kids to find.

If you are relaxing by the pool or beach, a hat or a Kelsyus canopy chair can protect you and your family from overexposure from the sun. If you aren’t going in the water for a while, but will still be in the sun, some loose fitting clothing can help protect your family’s skin.